^o5 On^the ^ortnefs of Leafes: Not. 



only other way, in fo far as occurs to me, of large tra£ls of land 

 being cultivated by the proprietors, is in the cafe of newly dif- 

 cove'red countries, as America, New South Wales, &c. where the 

 mother country, or dominant (late, makes grants of portions of 

 land to individuals, for the fake of clearing it, and Vv-here the 

 grantees continue for a certain time to cultivate the allotments 

 made to them, by themfelves and their families, and fometimes 

 by flaves. This mode of occupation and cultivation does not apply, 

 to the prefent Hate of this country. 



If it appears, then, that the beft mode of cultivatmg land in 

 Britain, is by aihgning the right of cultivation to others, for a 

 limited time, a natural queftion occurs. What ought to be the 

 period of duration of this time I But, inilead of taking it upon 

 me to determine what is the proper and mod advantageous en- 

 durance of a leafe, (which is not my prefent purpofe), and whether 

 it ought to be for 9, or 19, or 31, or 38 years, or for any 

 longer, or fliorter, or intermediate period, I am rather inclined to 

 be of the opinion, that, in different circumffances, the period of 

 affignment may be advantageoufly made of longer or of Ihorter 

 duration. 



But in one point I am decifively fixed ; which is, ' That the 

 cultivator fhould have a certainty of poileffion of the land for 

 fome reafonable given fpace of time. ' And this brings me to 

 what I had chiefly in view in thefe obfervations, namely, the 

 Ihortnefs, or total want of leafes which, I underfland, prevails in 

 fome diflricls of Scotland, and which, as it appears to me, muft 

 operate as an efleitual bar to agricultural improvements, or good 

 management of any fort, ever getting into thefe dillricls. 



From what I have obferved, I now confider the opinions and 

 pracfices fandioned or condemned in your Magazine as the tefl of 

 juft reafoning, and of good or bad management, in matters of 

 rural economy, in Scotland. And I have faid, on another occa- 

 iion, that I do not confider thefe intimations of approbation or 

 difapprobation fo much calculated for the opulent, and inde- 

 pendent, and enlightened farmers, in the well cultivated counties, 

 as for the poor, and opprefled, and ignorant cultivators of the 

 foil, in die remote dil\ri£ls : So I hope you will take thefe 

 latt<?r under your fpecial protection, and lend your powerful 

 aiTiftance to meliorate their adverfe and much to be lamented 

 condition. 



At the firft blufh of the propofition, one would imagine that 

 there needs not a fmgle word of argument or illuftration to prove, 

 that where the cultivators of the foil have no certainty in the 

 poffefTion, they will never be difpofed to pay any attention to a- 

 meliopation. But, on the contrary, where their right of pof- 



. {eflio5 



